In recent years, the demand for telecommunications services by businesses and individuals has increased dramatically. That dramatic increase has led to a corresponding increase in the demand for specialized and custom call processing features such as call forwarding, call waiting, call holding, audio calling name, and call answering services.
Some telecommunications networks, and particularly some advanced intelligent network (AIN) based telecommunications services, require the interaction and cooperation of application software on one or more distributed network elements in order to provide custom services. In order to process custom services, such as call forwarding, most present telecommunications networks utilize application software at some network element tasked with providing the desired custom calling feature. For example, calls that require forwarding under a call forwarding service may be routed to a particular network element containing a call forwarding application software. That network element, and particularly the application software resident at the network element, processes the call according to the custom feature ordered by the subscriber of the custom service. For example, if Ms. Price has ordered that all calls directed to her home telephone directory number be temporarily directed to Mr. Chan's home telephone directory number, a call directed to Ms. Price's home telephone directory number by Mr. Ven will be routed to a network element tasked with processing calls requiring call forwarding treatment. That network element will provide the necessary processing and route the call to the alternate telephone directory number ordered by the subscriber, Ms. Price.
A problem occurs, however, when the network element or application software tasked with providing the custom calling feature is out of service. Hardware at the network element may malfunction or may be manually shut down for preventive maintenance. Similarly, the application software resident in the network element may develop problems that limits its ability to process the custom service. When such a failure of the network element or application software occurs, often the call requiring custom treatment is lost altogether. By way of illustration, if the network element or application software tasked with handling the call forwarding example discussed above goes out of service, the call will still be routed to the network element, but will not be processed. The result may be that the call placed by Mr. Ven will literally ring until Mr. Ven terminates the call. Consequently, Ms. Price will not have been reached either at the desired alternate telephone directory number or at her home telephone directory number.
There is no known method or system in the prior art for causing one network element to monitor the operational status of a second network element prior to allowing a call to be routed to the second network element for call processing or custom treatment. Likewise, there is no known method or system in the prior art of causing a particular application software resident at one network element to monitor associated application software resident at a second network element. There is a need in the art for a method and system for having one network element monitor the operational status of another network element or elements. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for efficiently and inexpensively using advanced intelligent network services to monitor a network element or application software resident at a network element prior to routing a call to that network element or application software to provide some customized call treatment prior to call completion.